Shein & Chartok

If you’re still buzzing with political excitement after casting your primary vote today—you did vote today?—check out this excellent interview by WAMC’s Alan Chartock with Bill Shein, one of the three Democrats vying to be the party’s nominee for the newly reconfigured 1st Congressional district this fall.

He’ll face U.S. Rep. Richie Neal and former state senator Andrea Nuciforo in the September primary.

Shein is running as a progressive—a tag Nuciforo also claims for himself—and boy, does he make an awfully strong case, as he covers everything from Neal’s heavy financial reliance on lobbyists and other corporate interests, to the need for a single-payer healthcare system, to voter suppression efforts that aim to keep poor people and people of color from the polls.

Asked by Chartok why he’s running, the articulate Shein says, “It is clear, I think, to most people that our democracy, our economy and our natural environment are all in crisis. And the current way of addressing these crises is not working. The old way does not work.”

One especially interesting exchange: Chartok’s pushing Shein on why he’s running as a Democrat. “You seem to think they’ve sold out,” says Chartok, pressing Shein to explain why he’s not running from a third party instead.